Leading online broker Deriv has announced that it has appointed Rotimi Akinyele as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He joined the company in July 2024 as Vice President of Security, and has since taken on a widening remit across the business.

As CTO, Rotimi will lead Deriv’s engineering organisation. His priorities include automating work across every function, improving Deriv’s internal AI intelligence layer, and building a self-improving agentic loop for software development. Controls and security remain central to that work as AI agents are given greater access and responsibility.

From Security to CTO: a track record of delivery

Since joining Deriv, Rotimi has led Security and Data, then automation across Compliance, Data and Finance, and more recently Trading and Antifraud. Throughout, he has kept security and access controls at the centre of how Deriv deploys AI.

Before Deriv, he was Director in the Group Information Security Department at Dubai Holding, overseeing cybersecurity across its hospitality, real estate, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), media and education portfolios. He was previously Head of Information Security and Business Continuity at a government authority in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE.

Rakshit Choudhary, Chief Executive Officer of Deriv, commented,

“Rotimi has grown as a leader throughout the period he has been with us. I’m confident in him as CTO, and I look forward to working closely with him to build an AI-native Deriv. As we automate more and give agents greater access and responsibility, we have more systems and operations to secure. Our controls need to be the foundation of how we build.”

Rotimi Akinyele added,

“I am honoured to take on this role at a pivotal point for Deriv. Our engineering teams have spent the past year changing how we build, and my focus is to keep that pace while making sure security and controls grow with every system we automate. I look forward to working with our engineers to make that happen.”

The appointment reflects Deriv’s approach of developing leaders from within as it builds an AI-native company. Deriv has set a target of automating 75% of manual workflows by the end of 2026.

About Deriv

For 26 years, Deriv has been committed to making online trading accessible to anyone, anywhere. Trusted by over 3 million traders worldwide, the company offers an expansive range of trade types across popular markets on its award-winning trading platforms. With a workforce of more than 900 people across 13 countries, Deriv continues to invest in AI literacy at every level and in building a workplace where its people can grow alongside the business. As the company drives an AI-first transformation across every function, its values of integrity, competence, teamwork and customer focus remain the constant.